College football: Sacred Heart coach’s malady inspires Steve O’Brien

Friday

Oct 19, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Jennifer Toland College football

Steve O’Brien made his first collegiate start last week, and the Sacred Heart junior right guard helped clear the way for teammate Keshaudas Spence to rush for a career-high 138 yards and three touchdowns in a 27-10 win over Dartmouth.

“Once we were able to get Keshaudas cranked up, we were able to run the ball and control the clock,” said O’Brien, the former Holy Name High star from Uxbridge.

O’Brien was part of three Super Bowl championships at Holy Name and a lot of his former teammates — Brandon Potvin (UMass), Corey Brown (WNEC) and Santino Simone (Anna Maria), to name a few — also went on to play at the college level.

“After having so much success, we had the itch to keep playing,” O’Brien said.

The 6-foot, 300-pound O’Brien, an Academic All-Northeast Conference selection, was redshirted as a freshman at Sacred Heart. He played in just one game last year. He made his 2012 debut in the opener against Morgan State.

The Pioneers are 2-4, but they are playing for more than victories this season.

They are playing for their coach, Paul Gorham, who is on medical leave, but is inspiring his players from afar.

Early this year, the 51-year-old Gorham was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease. In March, he underwent a double lung transplant, and a few weeks later, had both of his legs amputated just below the knees.

“He’s really been a rallying cry for us,” O’Brien said. “We all want to get behind him and do it for PG.”

The Pioneers are wearing “PG” stickers on the backs of their helmets.

“He’s always on our minds,” O’Brien said, “when we’re preparing for games and postgame after big wins because he was always getting excited with us in the locker room. We miss him, but it’s been a rallying cry for us, something for us all to get behind and work for it for him.”

O’Brien said Gorham visited the team once this year and watched a preseason practice from the sidelines in his wheelchair.

“It was pretty inspirational to see him out there on the field,” O’Brien said.

Gorham, who has been at Sacred Heart for eight years, was an assistant at UMass from 1999-2003, and before that at Brown, New Haven and UNH, his alma mater.

Mark Nofri, Sacred Heart’s linebackers coach, stepped into the role of interim head coach.

The Bison were celebrating the end of a 17-game losing streak and Loney’s first victory as a head coach after beating New England Football Conference foe UMass-Dartmouth, 26-16.

“When you start coaching you always think of that first win,” Loney said, “and it’s just as good as I imagined and I’m happy we were able to do it especially for the coaching staff and our players and all they’ve gone through for the last Lord knows how long. Hopefully we can build on it.”

The win was the first for Nichols since Oct. 30, 2010. The Bison went 0-10 last year, Loney’s first with the team.

“It’s a process,” Loney said, “and during this whole process our kids have gone into every game playing hard, working as hard as they could have worked. In some cases, it was a matter of them hoping to win instead of expecting to win. But that’s a process and that will come with more success. I’m proud of the way the kids battled through.”

Nichols hasn’t had a winning season since 2007, and with just three games left, won’t again this year, but with a young roster, Loney is hopeful for the future.

One of those young players is sophomore defensive back Wesley Williams, who had three interceptions against UMass-Dartmouth.

For his efforts, Williams was named New England Football Conference Defensive Player of the Week and Division 3 Northeast Defensive Player of the Week. He was also named to the D3Football.com Team of the Week.

“I’m extremely proud of Wesley and his performance,” Loney said. “We’ve played a lot of man coverage this year, so in our first week of playing more zone, to have a guy record three picks is outstanding. He’s been a versatile guy for us this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing how his season ends.”

Allowing 50 points in two of the last three games does not sit well with Holy Cross coach Tom Gilmore.

The Crusaders (1-5, 1-1 Patriot League) gave up six plays of 25 or more yards.

“When they hit a couple plays on us we somewhat abandoned our reads and techniques,” Gilmore said, “and when we weren’t successful, we started trying to make calls that exposed us in other areas. There were a lot of different factors, the biggest being how good Colgate is.”

Adding to HC’s defensive woes was the loss of junior starting inside linebacker Scotty O’Donoghue, who suffered a knee injury on the opening kickoff and won’t play tomorrow at Lafayette. O’Donoghue ranks among HC’s leaders with 36 tackles.

With senior quarterback Andrew Shoop, the Leopards (4-2, 1-0) have some big-play ability. Shoop has missed two games this season — one for violating team rules, the other because of a concussion — and has completed 62 percent of his passes for 978 yards and seven touchdowns.

Turnovers have been a key in Lafayette’s four victories. The Leopards have a plus-9 turnover ratio this season (plus-13 in their wins) and lead the nation with 15 interceptions.

The Colgate game marked the first time this year Holy Cross did not turn over the ball, and Gilmore was pleased with the progress of sophomore quarterback Steven Elder, who threw for 313 yards and two touchdowns, and the offense, which put up a season high for points.

Holy Cross has won four straight against the Leopards.

Former Holy Cross quarterback John O’Neil will make his broadcasting debut tomorrow, working alongside Bob Fouracre for HC’s game at Lafayette.

O’Neil, who threw for 6,670 yards during his HC career, graduated from Holy Cross in 2006 and went on to earn his MBA from Boston College. He works in finance in New York.

The game can be heard on WTAG 580 AM and 94.9 FM, and on the Internet at GoHolyCross.com.